"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Ilus Tartu: beautiful Tartu

Haven’t blogged for a while as I’ve been too busy. And now, a week into my intensive Estonian course in Tartu, my head’s too full of Estonian declensions to write a proper blog. So I thought I’d share some photos from my Saturday morning walk around Tartu’s university park and “Toomemägi” (cathedral hill). I hadn’t known what to expect of Estonia’s second city, with its reputation as a “closed city” in Soviet times, but I think the pictures speak for themselves …

19th century café evokes Russian influencePagan roots: one of the many “sacrifice stones” in Estonia

Next to 19th science: old observatory …

… and old anatomical theatre

Part of ruined cathedral – once the university library, now a museumKristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian national poet who died aged 21 and walked from Riga to TartuBack down the hill past the Department of Languages, where my Estonian classes are heldTown-hall squareCeci n’est pas une universitéEmajõgi – Tartu’s river – literally “mother river”